All New Kindle Fires Are Ad-Supported; Is That A Deal-Breaker?

Early today, before everything became about Kindles, we touched on some of the innovations currently happening with mobile advertisements. There’s a right way and a wrong way to do advertising, and the line between the two isn’t always clear. You don’t expect an app to still include ads after you upgrade to the paid version, for instance. That’s why you might be interested to learn about one aspect of the new Kindle Fire models that Amazon wisely chose not to dwell upon during its event today: they all include built-in advertising.

Tucked-away near the end of Amazon’s press release you’ll find the following:

The new Kindle Fire family comes with special offers that appear on the lock screen. Examples of special money-saving offers that customers will enjoy include a $5 credit in the Amazon MP3 Store and a $5 credit for select titles in the Amazon Instant Video Store. Customers will also receive special offers and screensavers from brands like AT&T, Discover and Intel, such as a special offer of a $10 Amazon.com Gift Card when a customer uses their Discover card to purchase a digital product on Amazon.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because last year Amazon started selling a reduced-price Kindle that included these same Special Offers. At least then, though, you had the option to still pay full price and get a Kindle that didn’t keep trying to sell you things; with the new Fire and two Fire HDs, there just isn’t that option anymore.

We know, we know: there’s no sense getting worked up over a few little ads. That may be, but when you’re shelling out as much as $500 for a new tablet, this just isn’t the sort of thing most users are expecting. What do you think: non-issue, or is Amazon going too far here?

Stephen has been writing about electronics since 2008, which only serves to frustrate him that he waited so long to combine his love of gadgets and his degree in writing. In his spare time, he collects console and arcade game hardware, is a motorcycle enthusiast, and enjoys trapping blue crabs. Stephen's first mobile device was a 624 MHz Dell Axim X30, which he's convinced is still a viable platform. Stephen longs for a market where phones are sold independently of service, and bandwidth is cheap and plentiful; he's not holding his breath. In the meantime, he devours smartphone news and tries to sort out the juicy bitsRead more about Stephen Schenck!